13 October 2010

Breasts are for food, not sex

Although I have several blogs written in my head that I have yet to type out, I'm annoyed enough at the moment that I feel I must write this one out.

Everyday, it seems, there is a new story about a woman who has been harassed because she is breastfeeding her child in public. People gawk at her, managers tell her to leave, snide comments are made in her direction. It's rude and immature. Yet some loser celebrity always seems to sneak in a comment about how they find it gross. One of the annoying Kardashian whores comes to mind. (I don't remember which one. They're all the same. But this would be the one who posed for playboy and then made the comment via twitter that she was disgusted by a woman breastfeeding in a resturant next to her and that breastfeeding women need to learn some modesty. Because she's so modest. Right.)

Well let me tell you something. Breastfeeding is natural and beautiful. Breasts were designed to feed our children, not for men's (and I suppose women's too) sexual play things. Look at all the art from just about every time period before the 20th century. They all include a breastfeeding woman somewhere. Even our ancestors, as uptight and screwed up as they were, realized that breastfeeding was completely natural and completely compatible with modest living.

It is this society that is screwed up. Completely screwed up. It tells us that breasts are for foreplay and designed to make men's pants tighten and shorten. It tells us that we need to cover up while breastfeeding in public (hence the market for nursing covers) or just go into hiding. Is there a nursing mother today in this country who hasn't been "asked" at least once to either cover up or leave? I know I have. Several times.

What angers me most though, are people who not only have no problem with breasts being seen as sexual play things, but also find it funny. And thus, we come to the vexation that brought me to typing this up. I was on my facebook today and this came up on my news feed.

﻿I'm not sure what disturbs me more: the photo or his response to my reaction. (or possibly his horrid spelling?) This is exactly what is wrong with our society. This is exactly why many nursing mothers are shoved out of resturants, kicked out of stores, pushed into vacant bedrooms. This is exactly what needs to change. Breasts - not boobs - are not sexual play things. They were designed to serve one purpose, and that purpose to feed our children.

These types of "quizzes" need to stop. They are obscene and atrocious. The people who make these quizzes - and the people who then take them and laugh about them - need some serious help. Nursing mothers have enough problems with this society not supporting them. (like giving them cans of formula in the breastfeeding bags at the hospital) We have enough issues with trying to get baby to latch on correctly and making sure we have adequate supply, especially if baby has been in the NICU and on a feeding tube. There are enough people trying to shove formula down our throats - or rather the throats of our babies - like hospitals and doctors offices and stupid parenting magazines and commercials and coupons from the grocery store. The last thing we need is you perpetrating the idea that our breasts are for your sexual pleasure.

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About Me

I'm a vegan mama who home births and unschools, breast feeds and doesn't vaccinate, co-sleeps and baby wears. My babies are intact and cloth diapered when they aren't ECing. My bookshelves are organized by subject; my clothes are thrown in a pile. I love politics but hate politicians. I'm happily unmarried and unhappily in Pennsylvania.